Foundation wire for card cylinders



g" 1970 J. o. HOLLINGSWORTH 3,525,127

FOUNDATION WIRE FOR CARD CYLINDERS Filed June 21, 1968 FIG. 1

-. INVENT JOHN D. HOLLINGSW I P2 A 3 FIG. 4

ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofice 3,525,127 Patented Aug. 25, 1970 3,525,127 FOUNDATION WIRE FOR CARD CYLINDERS John D. Hollingsworth, P.O. Box 516, Greenville, S.C. 29602 Filed June 21, 1968, Ser. No. 738,922 Int. Cl. D01g 15/14 US. Cl. 19-112 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A foundation wire for card cylinders foruse with metallic card clothing wherein the wire is wound in side abutting helical convolutions on the cylinder and the wire has thick and thin areas along its entire length and undulated top and bottom surfaces.

The present invention relates to foundation wire for use on card cylinders and on which metallic card clothing is wound.

Cotton card cylinders were originally designed for flexible card clothing. This flexible card clothing has a height of about /3 inch. In recent years most of this flexible card clothing has been replaced by metallic card clothing which has a height of from A1 to inch. In order to allow the card cylinders to function correctly the metallic card clothing must be built out on the surface of the cylinder so that it is the same diameter as the original flexible clothing. Also, when rewinding the cylinders many of them are out of round or have slight indentations, etc. on the surface of the cylinder and hence these must be eliminated in order to obtain an extremely uniformly and accurate wind of the metallic card clothing on the cylinder.

It has been the practice in winding metallic clothing on these cylinders to first wind on a foundation wire and wind the metallic clothing onto this foundation wire. The foundation wire is usually of a very ductile metal such as aluminum so that it is easily wound and uniformly wound on the cylinders. In some instances, a foundation wire having its top surface with a plurality of recesses within this surface has been used for winding on the cylinders to improve the winding operation. Such a foundation wire is disclosed in the Hollingsworth US. Pat. No. 2,851,736.

However, in these prior art foundation wires their configurations have a certain amount of stiffness which makes it difficult for the winding operation and this stififness does not give absolutely perfect seating on either the low or the high points of previously used cylinders and hence, leaves something to be desired in the accuracy of the winding of the wire. Furthermore, in the improved foundation wire as disclosed in the above-mentioned patent wherein portions are punched out of the aluminum wire along one edge thereof there is considerable waste in producing this foundation wire which affects the economics of the process.

I have developed an improved foundation wire which readily conforms to any surface irregularities on the cylinder on which it is wound and produces an extremely uniform surface on which metallic card clothing may be wound. Furthermore, my improved foundation wire is extremely economical to produce in that there is no waste in producing this wire.

In accordance with the present invention the foundation wire is a rolled aluminum or similar metal strip having approximately parallel side faces and undulating top and bottom surfaces with thick and thin areas preferably uniformly spaced along its length. The wire is wound on a cylinder in side abutting helical convolutions so that the top undulating surface of the wire forms the seat for the metallic card clothing and bottom undulating surface of the wire rests on the surface of the cylinder.

The invention will be more fully described in the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the improved foundation wire of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of the improved foundation wire of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a cylinder on which is mounted the improved foundation wire of the present invention and on which is mounted metallic card clothing;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 3.

In FIG. 1 of the drawings there is shown a side view of my improved foundation wire 10. Both the top surface 11 and the bottom surface 12 are undulating and form a plurality of thick and thin areas in the wire. Though these thick and thin areas are shown as uniform they need not necessarily be absolutely uniform but it is preferred that the areas be equally spaced along the length of the wire.

FIG. 2 shows this foundation wire 14- in perspective showing the thick areas 15 and the thin areas 16.

As is more clearly shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 a card cylinder 20 has wrapped about its surface in helical convolutions in side abutting relationship my improved foundation wire 21. The bottom surface of the thick areas 25 contact the surface of the cylinder while the thin areas 26 do not. My foundation wire, which only contacts the cylinder over small intermittent spaces of the surface of the cylinder, virtually eliminates the surface irregularities in the cylinder. The top surface of the wire also produces a plurality of spaced areas upon which the metallic clothing 22 is wound. Standard metallic clothing is shown which has a shoulder 23 or a thickened portion which sits on the top surface of the foundation wire and extending from this shoulder are the carding points 24.

My improved foundation wire having a bottom surface which will intermittently contact the cylinder upon which it is wound and also having a top surface which will intermittently contact the metallic card clothing which is wound on the foundation wire produces a very uniform and true winding for the metallic clothing and virtually eliminates the effect of any surface irregularity in the cylinder.

Furthermore, my improved foundation wire is more flexible than previous foundation wire and hence may be wound much more readily on the cylinders.

My improved foundation wire may be composed of aluminum, magnesium, titanium, or other lightweight metal or similar light non-metallic material, although aluminum is preferred for reasons of economy. Also, when using these lightweight materials they may be rolled into the thick and thin configuration having undulating top and bottom surfaces and hence, there is no waste in producing this aluminum wire as there would be in the event that these areas were punched out to form the wire of the present invention. This of course has excellent economic advantages.

The above-detailed description of this invention has been given for clearness of understanding only. No unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom and modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a carding device a cylinder, metallic card clothing carried by said cylinder and a flexible foundation wire interposed between the surface of the cylinder and the clothing, said wire readily conforming to the surface of said cylinder and forming a seat for the card clothing, said wire having flat parallel side faces and being wound in side abuting helical convolution upon said cylinder surface, said wire having a plurality of thin and thick areas with each thin area and each thick area extending uniformly across the entire width of the wire and said thin and thick areas being uniformly spaced along the length of the wire to form undulating top and bottom surfaces with the bottom surface at the thick areas contacting the surface of the cylinder whereby surface irregularities in the surface of the cylinder are eliminated and the top surface at the thick areas being a uniform and intermittent seat for said clothing.

2. A carding device according to claim 1 wherein the 4 foundation wire is composed of lightweight metal such as aluminum.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,851,736 9/ 1958 Hollingsworth 19-114 XR 3,077,131 2/1963 McShane 72198 3,214,877 11/1965 Akin 2919'3.5 XR

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 29--193.5 

